Buna, battle for

Buna, battle for, fought during the New Guinea campaign when, in November 1942, two Allied divisions assaulted a Japanese beachhead established on Papua's north-eastern coast the previous July. While the 7th Australian Division attacked the 18 km. (11 mi.) well-fortified perimeter at its north-western end (see Gona), the 32nd US Division advanced on Buna village and mission at the south-eastern end, and two airstrips on nearby Cape Endaiadere. The numbers defending the perimeter had been badly underestimated, and the raw 32nd Division was untrained in jungle warfare and inadequately equipped. Casualties mounted and on 30 November MacArthur ordered Eichelberger, to the front to take Buna ‘or not come back alive’.

Eichelberger found demoralized, half-starved men in rags, many of them riddled with malaria (see also medicine). He relieved most senior officers, improved supplies and brought in armour and reinforcement. Helped by a fresh battalion airlifted to the front, Buna village was taken on 14 December. But the Japanese around the mission held out until 2 January 1943, the same day as Cape Endaiadere was seized, and it took another three weeks of hard fighting to clear the beachhead completely.

MacArthur's reputation hung by a thread at Buna. It was saved by Eichelberger and his 32nd Division whose losses, out of 10,825 frontline troops, amounted to 9,688, including 7,125 sick, a casualty rate of almost 90%. Never again did US troops go into battle with so little preparation and such inadequate logistics.